The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee is racing to advance a controversial bill seeking to establish the State of Israel’s direct responsibility for antiquities in the West Bank, which, according to many, amounts to de facto annexation.

Last year, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) rejected a bid to assume responsibility for the West Bank.

The committee, chaired by MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), met on Monday to begin preparing the bill for its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum, which is necessary to enshrine it in law. Additional meetings were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Amit Halevi, a Likud MK who sponsored the bill, said he hoped that it would be approved in the coming week.

Proceedings to dissolve the Knesset are expected to start at the beginning of next week, after the coalition submitted legislation on Wednesday to dissolve parliament and trigger elections, competing with opposition parties that had submitted their own bills for dissolution. A preliminary vote on the legislation could take place as early as Monday, after which it could be rushed through the legislative process. Once completed, the Knesset’s dissolution would halt the process of passing permanent legislation until after the elections.

If approved in its current form, the West Bank Antiquities bill will change the decades-long status quo in the West Bank by establishing a civilian “Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority” (named after the region’s biblical name) to assume responsibilities currently held by the Defense Ministry.

This would establish provisions, including in land management and expropriation, directly affecting Palestinians living in the West Bank.

“We are doing two things,” Halevi said during the committee meeting. “One is creating an organized body in charge of our spiritual and cultural treasures in Judea and Samaria, and another is doing it through Israeli legislation.”

The person responsible for the file is now a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank.

“The bill would essentially create a new situation in Judea and Samaria in which Israeli governmental authority will be exercised directly, not subordinate to the military commander in the area, but to the heritage minister,” attorney Ayala........

© The Times of Israel